In one aspect, this invention relates to a container for medicines. In another aspect, this invention relates to a container which is especially well suited for containing birth control pills.
Birth control pills are typically supplied on a foil backed punch-through sheet. Usually, 28 pills are supplied on each sheet, and some means is provided for labeling the pills by day of week. Providing the pills in this manner makes it easier for the user to ascertain whether the daily dose has been taken.
The effectiveness of the pills to prevent pregnancy however, declines when the pills are not taken at the same time each day. Under ideal conditions, with the pill being taken at the same time each day, the pills are 99.9 percent effective, on an annual basis. In other words, the pregnancy rate is 0.1 percent per year. When the pill is taken each day, but not at the same time., the pregnancy rate increases in the range of 30 to 80 times. In order words, the pregnancy rate is in the range of 3 to 8 percent per year. Obviously, some women are more likely to forget to properly take the pill than other, but, over a time span of, say, 30 years, the chances of at least one unintended pregnancy are undesirably high for most everyone.
Means for rendering it more likely that birth control pills will be taken at the same time every day would be very desirable.
In one embodiment of the invention, a medicine container is provided with an alarm device. The medicine container is preferably of a clamshell configuration. The apparatus comprises a first half of a clamshell case, and a second half of a clamshell case. The first half of the clamshell case has a concave inner surface with means for locating a pill-carrying card. The second half of the clamshell case carries an electronic alarm device.
Although the invention could be employed for a wide range of medicaments, it is especially well suited for birth control pills. By utilizing an electronic alarm device which emits an audible signal precisely every 24 hours, a woman can be reminded to take her daily birth control pill at precisely the most effective time.